Working Towards Independent Living
Maintaining a living space is an essential skill in building independence, and can be particularly difficult for individuals with autism or other mental learning disabilities to learn. This app aims to leverage children's interest and engagement with the iPad to help them learn and reinforce associations between objects and the places in a room they should be put away.
Kids Practice Cleaning
In "Play" mode, a scene (e.g. bathroom, kitchen, etc.) is selected. When the scene loads:
- A list of items that need to be "put away" is displayed on the left
- The scene with items is shown on the right
- Each item can be dragged around the scene and needs to be placed where it belongs
- As items are "put away," they get checked off on the list displayed on the left
Parents/Teachers Customize the Configuration
The app comes with a few pre-loaded scenes, but what makes it more useful is customization. In any given scene:
- Items can be added (from an existing list, from the photo library, or using the camera), or removed
- The exact placement of an item is determined by moving it to a desired location (e.g. where it is normally misplaced or left out)
- The exact region of where an item should be placed can be defined by a movable and resizeable green rectangle.
- An on/off switch determines whether an item should disappear when "put away," representing whether the item goes "inside" or is simply placed (e.g. garbage disappears inside of a garbage can, but a towel does not disappear when hung on a rack)
New scenes can be created by taking a photo with the camera, or using an existing photo stored on the device's photo library. Individual items can also be edited to provide useful hints in "Play" mode.